The Gameday post, South Carolina

— That, folks, is what this offense is supposed to look like. 492 total yards, 35 points, 334 rushing yards against what had been one of the best rush defenses in the country through three games. Gash after gash after gash. One punt in the second half, and only at the very end of the game. Against that kind of competition, that’s some pretty freaking incredible production. Never leave us, Gus.

— I can’t help it: Dyer 23 carries, 100 yards, 4.3 per carry. Lattimore 14 carries, 33 yards, 2.4 yards per carry. Dyer’s line gave him more help, but … yeah, this debate is years from being over, and our guy has as much a chance of winning it as their guy.

— Mmmmmm, the defense we wanted to see. I don’t think these guys are good enough to just shut down an offense with guys like Lattimore and Jeffery (Jeffery, holy crap) when they’re executing the way the ‘Cocks (and Garcia in particular) were. But they remain perfectly capable of making the sort of big plays that can make up for a lot of yielded yardage, and tonight–finally–they did. 4 turnovers in four possessions to end the game is going to give your team a damn good chance of victory.

— What were the odds coming in that the special teams’ biggest problem on the night was going to be Wes Byrum?

— Aaaaaahhhhh that touchdown drive after the second Garcia fumble–where they passed the ball once, and that once was the swing to Blake for the touchdown (and by the way, how sweet is Emory Blake?)–should be able to distilled into a substance I can inject directly into my veins.

— Cam Newton … I mean, what can you say? 334 total yards, five touchdowns, zero turnovers this week. Zero turnovers. If he stays intact and keeps playing like this, Auburn’s going to be able to do what they did tonight to an awful lot of teams.

— Only one crippling offensive penalty in the red zone. That almost qualifies as progress. Even if I may have sworn out a blood contract on any lineman that jumped down there at the goal line.

— THE SWEDE KILLA IS IN EFFECT, Y’ALL

— Does anyone think going to Shaw for those last two possessions was the right move? Anyone? Unless Garcia had his bell rung, that was just begging for, well, consecutive interceptions.

— Auburn is 2-0 in the SEC and despite the fact that both of those games came down to the final possession, Auburn has outgained their opponents by more than 100 yards in each. That’s a damn, damn good sign.

And overall, Auburn is as good as 5-0 for a second straight year. There’s a ton more work to do. But given the hurdles Auburn’s already cleared, that’s a hell of a start.

War Eagle!

HALFTIME

— Well, hey, we’re better off than last week, right?

— What’s so infuriating about that half is that Auburn is answering the major questions; the passing game is mostly productive, Lattimore has been largely held in check, Auburn’s offense hasn’t left the D on the field too long (they’ve punted just once on five possessions) … and it doesn’t matter, because Fannin and Dyer left the ball on the turf.

— OK, so it’s Roof’s turn to get flambeed, right? Honestly, it’s mostly deserved; we knew Carolina would run a ton of screens and draws, and what happens? Those screens and draws torch us. And check the conversion stuff below. But know that Carolina scored two touchdowns without even having to convert a third down. And Auburn has yet to force a three-and-out. That’s not good.

— A comprehensive list of the 3rd downs Carolina converted in the first half: 12 yards, 11 yards, 8 yards, 5 yards. 2nd downs that were eventually converted: 11, 10, 11, 10, 12. Auburn is tremendous on first down. And then the opponent looks to screens and draws, and our linebackers and secondary aren’t good enough to earn a stop. Sigh.

— Damn, Cam Newton. Not just 97 yards rushing and two TDs, but 7/9 for 73 yards–8.1 an attempt–with both of those misses catchable balls. Hell of a performance so far.

— Jeremy sent this to me and I meant to have it up in pregame, but by waiting ’til now, I get to note how super-ironic it is, give nthat Burns did not actually, in fact, catch this same pass in the game:

— How ginormous was that final touchdown drive? Not only the 7 points, but that it took long enough to prevent any immediate answer by Carolina … and now Auburn gets the ball to start the half.

C’mon, Tigers. Let’s do this.

PREGAME, 6:00: Update on starters: John Sullen will get the first call at right tackle, and in something of a surprise, Mario Fannin is listed as the starting tailback. I doubt that will end up meaning a whole heck of a lot, but it is a sign that Fannin will be involved in some fashion. (Wheel route city!) Oh, and as for Josh Bynes, apparently there was a rumor he was hurt. He’s not.

As for Alabama: Ryan Mallett is still Ryan Mallett. He giveth, and he taketh away like no other quarterback in the SEC.

UPDATE: Just kidding: Brandon Mosley is actually your starting right tackle, Dyer is the starting tailback, and–now here’s a surprise–Nosa Eguae is starting in Michael Goggans’ place at defensive end. Goggans was better the last two weeks than he was in Week 1, but I guess he wasn’t better enough for Rocker.

That’s all for now on this end; unless we get some sort of revelation between now and kickoff, the next update will be at halftime.

PREGAME, 4:15: So, how ’bout them Hogs? Obviously McElroy’s brainlocks have helped, but 300 yards in the first half is 300 yards. There wasn’t anything fluky about that half.

The pregameposts from the beat writers have started going up. As has been the case for the last few weeks, the big news so far is: it’s dreadfully hot. I have to admit that as badly as I want to get back to Alabama one of these days, hearing that it’s still 92 degrees on Sept. 25 isn’t, um, an enticement.

This just in: Tennessee is really, really bad. It’s one thing to let UAB hang around; it’s another to get flat dominated, 544 yards to 287, and win because UAB’s kicker had a J**n V****n day.

Since I almost never do this, I’ll do it now: I’m on Twitter, with occasional thoughts on the happenings across college football. Follow or just click over if you’re interested.

PREGAME, 1:10 p.m.: Not much going on in these noon games, not that we couldn’t have foretold that just by looking at the schedule. I had my hopes for UAB, and of course the Blazers are looking good in the box score, having outgained Tennessee by more than 60 yards. Too bad they’ve been outscored by 16.

Lastly, man, I don’t get announcers sometimes. The Va. Tech-Boston College broadcast puts up the BC QB’s numbers: 10-of-22, 120ish yards, one pick (in the end zone to negate a long drive), 0 TDs. Announcer: “Shinski’s having a pretty good day.” Yes, a completion rate lower than 50 percent, less than 6 yards an attempt, one critical interception and no touchdowns–he’s doin’ swell. What would it take for him to actually be having a bad day?

PREGAME, 11:10 a.m.: I still haven’t made up my mind if it’s cool to be on Mountain time on Saturdays or not. On the plus side, as soon as I wake up, there’s football to watch. On the downside, that means I have to wake up by 10 a.m. on a Saturday. Six in one, half-dozen in the other.

Spurrier was just interviewed by Holly Rowe (love you, Holly!) and it sounds like there’s been a ton of unfortunate real-life incidents for the team this week. It’s a shame, and condolences to all the ‘Cocks who have been affected. But if there’s going to be any impact on the football field, it’s likely to be in Auburn’s favor.

OK, what the hell, SEC picks. Went 3-3 last week.

UAB (+14) vs. Tennessee: Blazers may have found something with their backup QB last week and this seems like the sort of “breather” game that Vols could flounder in.

Arkansas (+7) vs. Alabama: Not sure the Hogs will win–I kind of think Alabama gets the ball back up 3 with like 6 minutes to go and runs the entire clock out–but I think they’ll keep it close enough to cover the full touchdown at home.

Georgia (PK) vs. Mississippi St.: Two desperate teams. But State’s quarterbacks have been so poor I don’t see them getting enough balance to beat the Dawgs.

Way to go Josh Bynes!!! Boy I thought we might have seriously hurt ourselves with that offsides. All we ended up doing is let them run more clock for us! Penalties have hurt tonight, but not as much as they could have. That block in the back on Sakerlina helped us out a whole lot, too. Come on offense, run the clock and let’s come out of this with a big win!

Walt, thanks for holding down the open thread singlehandedly. And yeah, that’s a freaking avalanche of first downs. Auburn never did get the huge bombs that tore Clemson apart and still racked up massive yards.

Top unconfirmed quote of the week comes from Tub, on how you beat SOS: “You beat Steve in football the same way you beat Steve in golf: you wait for him to pull out a 3-wood when a 9-iron will do.”. Prophetic, no?

But anyways, YES: LUTZ, BLAKE. No: fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuumbles. Also YES: Dyer>Lattimore. And it was nice to catch a couple breaks there at the end – I really thought we were going to go to overtime again, sigh.

It got a little lonely in here tonight, but I couldn’t help but keep posting. I was sitting in my room, watching the game on channelsurfing.net (b/c I’m in Europe, and ESPN 3 finds nothing but cricket matches here), listening to it on my headphones, and trying not to scream out loud and wake up the roommate with every big play. So I had to have an outlet.

What a game! Our rushing is DANGEROUS right now. Dyer is a beast, OMac is SCARY fast when he turns on the jets and makes cut backs, and if neither of those work, then that delayed fake and Cam keeping the ball will continue to gash people.

Roof’s “bend, don’t break” defense was fabulous, too. Some silly things almost cost us, but those interceptions and forced fumbles were all the difference. I still can’t believe Spurrier brought in Connor Shaw, but he’s going to be a good QB for them one day.

And I loved the shoutouts for Jaybo Shaw, who is quarterbacking my GSU Eagles. Currently the best looking Div-1 football team in the state of Georgia! Looks like my GSU Eagles are on the way back to dominance in the FCS! A great day (night/morning) of football for me! GATA EAGLES (for GSU) and WAR DAMN EAGLE!

Nice, J.P.! My father is a ’74 grad of GSC, and I was in the stands for the ’89, ’90, ’99, and ’00 National Championship games (and unfortunately also for the ’98 game). Working on finishing up a Master’s degree from GSU myself. Hopefully I’ll get that done in the spring or summer when I return from Kosovo.

looks like 4 consecutive weeks that a tiger will be sec player of the week. think cam has that one locked up without me even looking at what anyone else did! Hallelujah, malzahn rediscovered the intermediate passing game!!!!!! Did anyone else see how that opened up…I don’t know…like EVERYTHING for our offense? I am super satisfied with that win. Sure I could nitpick, but this week I’m not. Celebrate this one guys, and take care of business early and often next week so these youngsters can get some reps and help us even more down the stretch. BIG trap game at kentucky though. At least the coaches have last years game film to show them. Road game and revenge on the brain should make a hell of a contest. Also, gotta say I hated the T-Pain stuff initially, but in the stadium watching the student section it was freaking awesome. Good Night and War Eagle

Marc Blumberg Went to the SC – Auburn game at Auburn last night. I wish we won the game but the Auburn experience could not have been nicer. Clean campus, polite fans, great traffic management, all very first class. Head and shoulders above any other SEC environment I’ve experienced. (No, I’ve not been to the Grove yet.)

It is my belief that Garcia failed his concussion questions.
The trainers were obviously interviewing him on the sidelines after the hit.
I just don’t see another reason why he was pulled.
I’ve witnessed a few concussion questions in my life.
I know it’s a very serious thing, but the answers can be some of the funniest you’ll ever hear.

Overall good game for us and if we had not turned the ball over, the game would have been over much, much sooner.
WDE!